Car Rides and Realizations
by BlackBandit111
Summary: Cabe apparently didn't have to listen to them argue all the home. AU end of 1x4. No slash.


_Hey there, cyclone! Apparently I'm finding a whole lot of oneshots I've previously written and posting them TONIGHT even when they've been written for literal weeks, so here we go, something contemplative for you on Walter/Cabe's father/son relationship YAY! I hope you enjoy and **if you want more Scorpion fics by me check out my profile!**_

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><p>Cabe had expected bickering, bantering and, most of all, smart ass lip. He had been completely serious about leaving them in the desert to walk- the idiots certainly deserved it-but he'd only driven in the other direction for about five minutes before turning back. He'd known it had been enough time for Walter and Toby to settle their demons and maybe make friends again, and despite his firmness, Cabe wasn't cruel.<p>

So they'd climbed into the car gratefully, Walter remaining silent as he got into the very back seats next to Toby (which maybe should have set off alarms in his head because Walter loved to whine, but he hadn't really been paying attention). So he'd driven and at first there had been relative murmurs about this and that and _Toby, were you and Walter really going back to gamble?_

But about an hour into the drive they ran out of statistics to chatter about and Paige had run out of stimulants for conversation, so everyone descended into silence (and maybe the pounding behind his eyes would go away; wouldn't that be nice), and with the silence came calmness and Cabe relaxed in the driver's seat, hands loosening from their clench on the wheel. Sylvester had jumped into the passenger's seat and was staring out the window in contemplative quiet.

It had been hard to imagine, these geniuses finally _not _talking, but it was happening and Cabe could hardly believe it. Smirking privately to himself and glancing at the clock (they still had a ways to go before they were home) he was about to turn on the radio for some background noise before he hard it.

The breathing.

It wasn't normal breathing- that was to say, not the breathing of someone who was awake. His brows furrowing as he glanced at Sylvester, whose head was resting against the glass but whose eyes were still very much open, Cabe's own eyes flickered confusedly to look in the mirror.

Happy and Paige were both gazing out separate windows, looking drowsy but definitely awake. Toby was leaned back in his seat, his face tilted to the ceiling with his hat laying over it, but Cabe could tell by his posture he was only dozing.

Then there was Walter.

Cabe had seldom seen Walter sleep; the young man had such issues with appearing vulnerable and weak in front of others, and Cabe had a chilling theory that even if Walter had been shot, he wouldn't tell anyone he was hurt in the pretense of trying to look strong. So it was on occasions few and far between Cabe had ever seen the kid even yawn, least of all drift off with other people around.

But they weren't _others_, were they? The Scorpions were all Walter had, his _family_, all of them a ragtag group of misfits who somehow fit _together. _Even Paige had been accepted willingly, and maybe Walter didn't trust Cabe with his back anymore, but he trusted the agent at it, and that was all that mattered at the end of the day.

The light trickling in from the highway lamps illuminated the dark shadows on Walter's face, helping Cabe to see the young genius fully, slumped in his seat as he was. His head gently pressed against the glass of the window, and his eyes were closed. He looked...peaceful, Cabe decided, with his brows abandoning their usual creases. His lips were parted slightly, the breaths he was taking misting up the window. How long had it been since Walter had slept? A day?

"Two days," Sylvester said quietly in response to Cabe's unspoken question. Maybe the man had been pondering the same thing. Sylvester glanced at him. "Since he's slept, I mean. He was up all night before the case, working on a project, and then he didn't get any sleep in the prison before he'd broken out, so…"

Forty eight hours. No wonder the kid had crashed.

Cabe grunted but decidedly didn't reply, and Sylvester went back to the scenery. There was more silence for a while, the only sounds the steady, lulling thrum of the car engine and Walter's deep breathing as he slept.

(And if Cabe tried to drive a little smoother after he realized how little sleep Walter had gotten, no one seemed to notice, or at least neglected to mention it.)

Toby's soft snuffling (and Christ, did he sound like a kid when he did it) soon joined Walter's heavy breaths, and then Happy dropped off and began murmuring about what sounded like motorcycle engine parts, and then Sylvester's light snores. Cabe sighed and rolled his eyes even though it was hard to be truly annoyed with them. They were and felt (and God forbid anyone say he was going soft, because he wasn't) safe, and damn it all to hell if Cabe would wake 'em. Besides. They were quieter and less aggravating like this.

"They're good people," Paige spoke up from the backseat, and Cabe hummed in agreement, absently noting that Walter had begun to shiver as he found himself turning up the heat. "They might be hard headed sometimes, but I think they mean well."

She paused. ""They've had a rough couple of days. Stressful, you know what I mean. This is good for them."

Cabe watched Walter's shudders die down again as the car warmed up before he replied. "I'm responsible, God help me."

Paige laughed softly. "Yep. You've got quite the job, I'll give you that."

Cabe considered keeping the next part to himself, but couldn't help it. "You have a kid. You understand."

And damn, he could feel her grin radiating through the dark. "Yeah. I do."

And the quiet reigned comfortably, the sounds of sleep banishing the loneliness that often accompanied Cabe's regular silence.

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><p><em>(okay so it was shorter than I expected what do you want from me) but how was it? Good, bad? Praise? Constructive criticism- yay for characterization? Tell me! Thanks for reading, please leave me a comment on your thoughts and have an awesome day!<em>


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